Back from a fabulous cruise with 18 month old

[cruizinawayinva]

We just got back from our 18 month old's first cruise. It was fantastic!! We sailed on Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas. We had an aft balcony and our son loved the balcony and it came in handy during nap and night time, although many times we were so exhausted we went to bed when he did. We cloth diaper but decided to use disposables on the cruise and ended up completely overestimating how many diapers we needed to bring. That was my only packing error. We did bring a stroller, a G-Luxe, but we didn't use it very often. I'm not sure I'd bring one next time. However we traveled as a group of 12 so there were a lot of people to help by holding my son or just chasing after him while he explored. I brought snacks and food for him but he ended up not eating those and ate so much better on the boat than he does at home. I packed Pedialyte powder just in case but luckily no one in our party got sick. We did attend one of the playgroups that Royal Caribbean has daily. It didn't work well with our schedule but the one time we attended all the kids were having a blast and my son loved it too. We didn't do any excursions since I wasn't sure how they would work with nap, we just did self-guided port exploration in Georgetown and Falmouth. We spent the day at the beach in Labadee. We ate dinner in the main dining room every night except the two formal nights. The waitstaff was great with our son and brought him fruit every night first thing. My father-in-law really wanted to take us all to Chops for dinner one night so we went at 6pm since they don't usually allow 18 month olds. There were other kids there as well and overall there were only four other tables and no one seemed bothered that young children were there. I was very nervous about that because I didn't want to ruin someone else's meal. Despite not normally catering to kids in that restaurant the waiter was FABULOUS!! He kept my son entertained and even let him play with his watch while the rest of us ate. I can't say enough good things about him. Or my son who didn't melt down once during any of our dinners despite the fact that they were more than double the time we usually spend eating dinner. The entire staff, as well as most of the passengers, were so kind to my son he started asking strangers to pick him up by the middle of the week!! A lot of them willingly offered as well. :rolleyes: It was a fantastic vacation that we will be thinking of with smiles until we go on our next cruise!! For us when we go on vacation we want to do it as a family so a vacation will always include our children. This cruise was different from our last in that we didn't stay out all night at shows but watching our son splash in the ocean for the first time and seeing him giggle with glee as he explored the Promenade was absolutely worth missing the adult comedy show. :)

[luv2cruiserccl]

I am so glad your trip was so good. Going with my 2.5 year old daughter and wife and about 9 other family so after hearing that your son liked it so well I know mine will to! Thanks for posting

 

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[ChickyfromVA]

Thanks for posting this. We're going on one next week with our 22 month old son. Can't wait.

[kimfrazee]

Thanks for the cruise update. We will be sailing with our 15 month old in April... and I am very nervous about bringing him. Hoping it goes as well as yours did!

[Cocoanib]

Awesome! So glad you all had a good time!

[Julienatul]

Glad you enjoyed it!! I remember both my kids "firsts" on the cruiseships and now that they are 6 and 3 they beg to go on cruises.

[luv2cruiserccl]

so any cute photos!

[ohok]

Congrats! I'm glad all went well for you, cruising with a little one can be kind of nerve-wracking!

 

My son was 16 or 17 mos on our last cruise we drove 8 hours to port to avoid taking a flight and then once on board we often were complimented on his good behavior by other cruisers, which was awesome! I think the worst was when he kept wanting to throw sand at a very crowded beach in Mexico...agh! I did snap some pictures of that right before telling him no.... I know that's terrible!

[cruizinawayinva]

so any cute photos!

 

I'm not exactly sure how to post photos, but here is my Blog post about our cruise with pictures.